BSP Takes on Gandhis in Rae Bareli

Mayawati left after casting her vote for India’s new president at Parliament House in New Delhi, July 19.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kumari Mayawati doesn’t appear to want to hand Congress party president Sonia Gandhi or her family a walkover in the 2014 general elections.

This week, Ms. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party announced it would put up a candidate to fight Ms. Gandhi in her parliamentary seat of Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, according to local media reports. A BSP spokesman declined to comment.

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The seat has been a Nehru-Gandhi family stronghold since Independence – a fact which appears to be discouraging other parties from even fielding a candidate in the constituency.

Last month, Mulayam Singh Yadav, head of Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party, said the leadership had decided not to contest Rae Bareli in 2014.

Mr. Yadav said this was in gratitude for Congress’s decision not to field a candidate in another part of Uttar Pradesh during a by-election this summer. The candidate then was Mr. Yadav’s daughter-in-law, Dimple Yadav, who won her seat uncontested.

Some observers say this kind of horse-trading diminishes India’s democracy. Others have pointed out how a few families dominate a swathe of India’s parliamentary seats.

The BSP certainly isn’t immune to horse-trading. It didn’t contest the seat won by Dimple Yadav, for instance.

Anil Kumar Verma, a professor of political science at Kanpur University in Uttar Pradesh, says Ms. Mayawati might be fielding a candidate as a way of pressuring Congress not to contest seats where the BSP hopes to win.

“She might be anticipating a bargain,” he said. “At the last minute she could withdraw. It might be a pressure tactic.”

The BSP candidate in Rae Bareli polled only a fifth of Ms. Gandhi’s total in the 2009 elections. The Samajwadi Party did not contest the seat in those polls.

Another reason for the BSP’s decision might be that Congress is looking more vulnerable in Rae Bareli. The party did badly in the constituency during Uttar Pradesh state elections earlier this year.

Mr. Verma points out, though, that national elections for Parliament are a different matter. Voters in Rae Bareli have regularly opted for members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, including former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, despite a lack of development in the area, he added.

Ms. Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka is taking a lead role in plans for the 2014 election in the state, according to Indian media reports.

Attempts to reach Congress spokesmen were not successful.

The BSP is planning to field Ram Lakhan Pasi, a local Dalit leader from the party and a former state-level bureaucrat, in Rae Bareli, reports say. The Pasis, part of the Indian caste system, are one of the largest communities in the constituency.

Attempts to reach Mr. Pasi were not successful.

In Jaamodeep, a village of 70 or so families living in mud huts, farmers say they will continue to support the Gandhi family, although some say they have been disappointed by a lack of infrastructure.

The village falls under the neighboring Amethi constituency, formerly held by Ms. Gandhi and now by her son, Rahul.

“None of the other parties put up candidates that have a serious chance against the Gandhis,” says Ajay Bhan Singh, who runs a flour mill in the village and says he has not heard of Mr. Pasi.

He says falling under a Gandhi constituency hasn’t brought any benefits for the village, pointing to unpaved roads.

“We get electricity for just two hours a day. It comes in the middle of the night and by the time we wake up, it’s gone,” said Viru Singh, a 24-year-old farmer.

Ram Prakash, who is from the Pasi community, says he also supports the Gandhi family and hasn’t heard of Mr. Pasi.

“Just because I’m a Pasi, I’m not going to vote for a Pasi. Each vote is valuable and has to be earned,” he says.

Sitaram Singh, another farmer, says the Gandhi family is so dominant in the region that few people are willing admit to supporting another candidate.

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